Winterise your boat - Interior

With forecasts indicating that this winter is set to be the coldest and harshest in over 50 years, Boats and Outboards has teamed up with Dave Hill, from Golden Arrow Marine, to create a full winterisation guide, to make sure you and your boat are 100% ready for wind, rain, and freezing temperatures.

Watch the video for a really simple and practical run through on how to winterize your boat, and for the key information in text, read below!

Shower A large percentage of modern boats have a shower on board with an electric pump, which pumps the water overboard and is often situated in the bilge of the boat.

Over the winter months, the water can freeze in the tank, especially when the boat is in the water. This can cause damage to the tank and pipes which may then require replacing and prove to be a costly and time consuming repair.To prevent this, simply pour a coolant mixture into the shower drain which will then fill up the pump, and that will protect the jump in temperature over these cold winter months.

Toilet

Remember to also pour the antifreeze mixture down the toilet, to again make sure that the pipes don't freeze.This Starbrite -50°C Non Toxic Anti Freeze is the perfect product for this, providing -50c protection to your water systems and engines.

DehumidifyIf you have the luxury of short power at your marina, we highly recommend investing in a dehumidifier. This is an extremely important tool to take the unwanted moisture out of your boat, which if left, can easily cause damp, mould and wood-rot.

Simply place the dehumidifier on the sideboard of the boat and leave it over the winter months to draw all of the unwanted moisture from the air.

A good dehumidifier will come with a container, which you pull out from the back. This however will need to be emptied on a regular basis, meaning very regular trips to the boat.We recommend purchasing something like a Waveline Portable Dehumidifier as it comes with a hose which you can plug into the back of the drain pipe and you can then place the other end into the sink, allowing the machine to drain away for the whole winter.

Make sure, if you are leaving a dehumidifier on the side, to also let the marina know that you have one on board, as sometimes the marina may need to move your boat and it could easily fall off and cause damage to the deck.

If you don't have electricity for a powered dehumidifier, a handy alternative is a Star bite no damp dehumidifier or a less expensive moisture trap, which does a similar job.

Make sure that prior to doing this, you drain all the water tanks down, including your grey tank.

Put the taps on too and leave them on during the winter- if you have a plastic tap and it’s left on, it can freeze and then break, leading to another repair in the spring.

In our next newsletter, we will be giving another informative run-down on how to Winterize your engine as part of ‘Winterizing your boat’ series.

Special thanks to Mailspeed Marine for providing us with the products for the video and competition. If you fancy winning yourself all of the products needed for this winter, simply like and share our Facebook post here to enter.